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| French and Italian Navy Horizon Class Warships Equipped with Advanced Anti-Ship Missiles |
Project Horizon began in 1992, before the UK withdrew from cooperation a few years later. This project aims to produce warships that can be used by all three countries based on only one design. However, disagreements over several aspects of the project led the UK to withdraw from the Horizon project.
This left France and Italy to work together to develop warships under the project. After leaving the Horizon-class submarine project, the UK then developed the Daring-class type 45 destroyer.
In 2000, the two countries signed an agreement to build four air defense warships named Horizon class battleships for France and Italy. The French Navy acquired two Horizon-class destroyers while the Italian Navy acquired two Horizon-class destroyers for a total of four ships built.
Quoted from Defense Security Asia, the Horizon-class destroyers are currently in service with the French Navy. The French Navy Horizon class destroyers known as the Forbin and Chevalier Paul were first built in 2003 and 2004. Subsequently, they were launched in 2005 and 2006. Both warships were commissioned into service with the French Navy in 2007 and 2009.
Meanwhile, the Horizon-class destroyers currently serving the Italian Navy are known as Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio. The Italian Navy's Horizon-class destroyers were built in 2002 and 2003 and launched in 2005 and 2007. Two Italian warships were commissioned into service in 2007 and 2009.
With a length of 152 meters and a weight of 7,000 tons, France spent around 1 billion euros for each Horizon-class warship while for Italy the construction cost for each warship was around 1.5 billion euros. The French and Italian Horizon-class warships are capable of carrying up to 236-255 crew.
In addition, the Horizon-class warships can cruise at a speed of over 25 knots with an operational radius of more than 6,100 nautical miles. As they are air defense ships, the four Horizon-class warships are also equipped with the Principle Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) with 48 vertical launch systems for launching Aster 30 and Aster 15 missiles.
As for the anti-ship missile system, France's Horizon-class warships use Exocet while Italy uses Teseo Mk2. The four warships are also equipped with torpedo tubes, with each ship capable of storing 24 torpedoes.
Horizon-class warships are also equipped with hangars to accommodate medium-sized helicopters. Each ship is also equipped with two 76mm guns and 20mm and 25mm guns.
Quoted from Naval Technology, the Horizon class frigate is included in the AAW specialization. The AAW in question is that the Horizon class frigate is capable of air defense specialization from several incoming air threats. For the Horizon class, the French frigate is known to be made by DCNS Lorient and Italy is made by Fincantieri. And the key to the strength of the Horizon class frigate is its fairly fanged VLS system.
It is known that the VLS Horizon class frigate is equipped with PAAMS and Sylver as the flagship launch technology. With these anti-ship missiles, the Horizon class frigate has the ability to attack anti-ship missiles. It is still shown again that the Horizon class frigate has the quality of surface weaponry of the OTO Malera 76mm type. For this reason, for anti-submarine warfare the Horizon class frigate is also available for the MU90 torpedo and the WASS type.
Therefore, the Horizon class frigate can still carry the AW-101 and SH90A anti-submarine helicopters as a mainstay. Then for the electronic radar sensor and countermeasures, it turns out that it is full of advanced technology in its class in the Horizon class frigate. With a range of over 7,000 nautical miles and a top speed of 29 knots, the Horizon class frigate can last 45 days with sufficient supplies and logistics.